Menu

It’s Official BlogCatalog is Fried

It’s official BlogCatalog and TweetFeed owners Tony Berkman and Angie Alaniz have broken the eggs and fried them too. They have cooked up something new and I don’t mean HalfHour meals. So what’s the Broowhaha all about?

No more BlogCatalog profile pages for members. No more groups and no more forum. The entire structure is being changed.

During the last 2 months the BlogCatalog team has experienced a number of major challenges that have resulted in decisions being made.

[Oscar (aka. Nine) lead designer has left the BC team and so has Daniel (aka. thegoodknife) lead programmer.]

We explored the site [BlogCatalog] and found that it’s got to go and be replaced by something that gets you more viewers and a much more valuable way to see what’s happening …

It’s being replaced with something that you choose how to use and who to follow. Talk to people you want to. It’s more of a connection and exposure area that includes discussions. — TonyB

So the news is a totally new site is being launched. The old site has been quietly dismantled over the course of the last 10 days to create a seamless process for members and guests. Guest accounts have been available at BlogCatalog for over two years now.

Non blogger readers however make up the majority of traffic that blogcatalog receives and sends to blogs. So if we were to make it a requirement that only bloggers could read and see what’s going on, most of the traffic to blogs from BlogCatalog would disappear. — 5/05/09 TonyB

BlogCatalog is launching a new platform for bloggers to get more readers, become better bloggers, and to use more opportunities to make more connections.

the discussions won’t “go”. They are being improved. We know what the problems are in the discussions. eg. some people want to drop links, others don’t want links dropped. Some members want to talk politics, other members don’t. The new discussions will enable you to do exactly what you do now, will remove features that aren’t used, and add features that give you the ability to talk about what you want, with who you want. You get to decide. — TonyB

Current members’ content and contacts will remain and options to use a new set of tools and analytics will be provided. Thumbshots of blogs will remain, messages will be slightly different, recent viewers will be made more interesting, and profiles will be dramatically improved. The new site released in beta to premium members first.

Our goal is to create an environment where:

1. our first value is to be a member driven community

2. to be the hub for “quality” bloggers on the web. Specifically, a place that where bloggers connect more effectively with each other, with their readers, and a place where they can elegantly and effectively promote their blogs; and discover what they do well and feedback about what they can improve.

In essence, we want our members to have more control over their “own” experience — without admins having to say “no” (you never see a twitter admin saying no).

The future for quality bloggers, whether personal blogs or bloggers who make a living from writing, reporting, investigating, etc. is extremely bright. … TonyB > read more here

Premium members are also signing up for a the side project called Friedeggs, and reputed to be a Twitter killer. The 140 character restriction doesn’t exist On Friedeggs. It provides the ability to post media (image uploads, video uploads) and provides the ability to follow and converse only with people you choose to. Moreover, your microblog content there will be pushed out to update your Twitter and Facebook accounts for you.

Post navigation

40 thoughts on “It’s Official BlogCatalog is Fried”

I am very displeased with the changes at BC. I have been listed there since 2009 and I recently received an email stating that my blog was declined for resubmission into the directory. Funny thing is I don’t recall resubmitting my blog for approval.

Since this revamping, I knew the situation would not pan out to my liking. Several weeks before getting this email I noticed that my blog’s screenshot was no longer showing (it is that way for many of the other blogs listed). Previously you could resubmit your screenshot in the settings but now you have to pay BC to show a screenshot.

When I attempted to resubmit the blog, I noticed that blogs deemed as “commercial” would be refused. I run Adsense on my site and since I did not see where my blog fit into BC’s list of refusal criteria being that I had its meta tag in my html; I had BC’s widget in my sidebar; my URL is in fact a blog; my site is not new: and I don’t have any poronographic material on my site then being labeled as “commerical” was all that was left.

What I find particularly frustrating is the hypocrisy of my site being removed from the directory. BC has done a complete overhaul ridding the Adsense banners that were a part of its pages so that they can line their pockets with the cash of bloggers paying for exposure on BC’s home page. And though many of the blogs featured on the home page don’t run ads I find it hard to beleive that they blog just for the sake of blogging. Many of these bloggers blog to promote their books or a product.

So with that I deactivated my account without a second thought. I know that these blog directories have no obligation to anyone who submits their blogs; that is a part of their terms of conditions. At the same time, in these times not everyone can spare an extra $400 to $1,000 to keep their blog in a “good spot” in a directory.

It is like throwing out the baby with the bath water. It seems the idea is that blogs deemed the best are considered as such because individual bloggers are willing to pay a price for the exposure BC can give. Then you have someone like me who have a good blog, with solid, informative content and gets great feedback but I can’t afford that kind of promotion. Well too bad you’re out. So it’s just business as usual with that great divide between the haves and the have nots.

I’m not feeling the new BC. I understand that they need to be proactive but in the old format people were actually finding my blog. While I was not one who spent hours using social media, I did enjoy getting feedback about my blog and friend adds. I would say that a good 97% of the messages I received were not spam. In the new format you must pay a fee for exposure and the only messages I receive now are “inside scoop” from the big whigs. My blog, however, IS not suffering as a result because I do make sure I ping search engines each time I post. I have a Facebook fan page for the blog, and have even done a few video uploads at Youtube. I did like the freedom of interacting more with others who were interested in my blog’s topic.

I missed this discussion back in April. I happened to click to it on a related link from Today’s post. Given the roll out of BC 2010 now going on, I found it very interesting to revisit these very early reactions in light of how poorly received (it appears to me anyway) the actual launch has been. I’d love to see a new post that discusses the launched version.

I am contemplating publishing another post on this subject. However, that will have to wait as the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend looms before us. The second biggest opportunity to make income in the year is one we cannot miss out on as we require the income to survive. If you would like to publish, please do and I will backlink to your post from one that contains my own take on the redesign and launch of the new BC site.

I have long since disappeared from BC, I loved it and have met some wonderful people as a result. But, increasingly, I got so upset at the moderation policy or lack of.
I really don’t like to see people being slated for any reason and at times it violated my personal limit of what is acceptable.
Perhaps I should go and check out fried eggs…………maybe!
Anyway. Hi TT, tis a long time no see…I do hope ur ok?

@Chrissy Marie
Wow! It’s so good to hear from you. I also met wonderful people and I’m still in touch with most of them. When I do just hang out I’m at friedeggs and you will find others there you know too. Just click my list of followers when you get there and you can reconnect with some folks you know http://friedeggs.com/timethief/
Sending you a cyber hug. :)

Nice to hear so many people commenting and wondering what changes will turn out to look like on BlogCatalog. I’m very excited and hopeful that the elements that aren’t working are cleared out and the ones that do work stay.

Those of us who aren’t premium members will just have to wait and see.

I love dropping links – I read somewhere this morning that “links are the currency of blogging”. I’m getting used to using Zemanta on all of my blog posts so I can drop other people’s links as well as my own.

I tried fried eggs and will give it another look again. There’s only so much time! But, I’m a big fan of TonyB and BlogCatalog so I think I’ll be happy cracking open so space to come over and play and meet some new peeps :D

Hi Cheryl,
Thanks so much for your feedback. There is a negative connotation that applies to “link dropping”. I think your reference is actually to backlinking and that you don’t understand the negative context for the phrase “link dropping”.

Those who hijack threads on forums to post off-topic comments into them only to drop links to their blogs or to posts in their blogs that are not specific to the topic in the thread are opportunistic conversation spoilers ie “link droppers”. Those who “link drop” on forums are also inclined to post inane comments lacking in value on blog posts for the same purposes ie. to gain undeserved attention and traffic.

In the former case, I report all link droppers to forum Admin. In the latter case, I moderate all comments submitted to my blogs and post a comment only if it has value. If it doesn’t have any value and I’m dealing with a sleazy “link dropper” trying to to gain undeserved attention and traffic then I delete the comment completely. I do this every day. In some cases I will remove the link and post the comment saying why I deleted the link in it.

I do use Zemanta sometimes. I use it only after I have done all my research for related content on a post, and selected the authoritative posts I wish to backlink to, and have a completed draft copy of the post.

I’m very cautious about which posts on which blogs I backlink to in my posts. If I find Zemanta has supplied links related content posts I missed during my research (a rare occurrence), then I read the posts on the blogs and check them out very closely to be sure it’s a real blog and not a splog. After I check all the Zemanta suggested links out as described I will click on only the high quality content links on high quality blogs and they will be added as “Related links from Zemanta”.

I joined BC in February and although I find some of the forum topics interesting (and occasionally contribute), I’ve been driven to distraction by the spammers and make money so-called blogs that add me as their ‘friend.’ I couldn’t see how to take those people off, because if it was Facebook, or some other site where I could choose who would be my friend (or not), they would’ve been sent off with a flea in their ear.

Just as I have found a group containing real bloggers among the other guff, I hear it’s to be disbanded, with all the other groups. I’m hoping the changes will be an improvement. It certainly sounds like it, especially if it means I no longer have to deal with the timewasters. I may never reach the dizzy heights of hundreds of viewers a day, but that’s OK, because I want to connect to a community of real bloggers. I like the sound of Fried Egg. I’m not a premium member, so I’ll have to wait awhile before I can try it. Sounds much better than Twitter, which I’ve not yet signed up to and perhaps never will.

@pienbiscuits
There are two things going on here. (1) The restructuring of BC which premium members get to preview first, and (2) a separate project called friedeggs which is open to all bloggers.

Here’s the good news – you can join http://friedeggs.com immediately. All of my readers can join. Please do and look me up when you get there http://friedeggs.com/timethief/ Joining amounts to completing a registration form and getting an immediate email with a confirmation link in it.

Spammers, scammers, and self absorbed griever trolls are everywhere. At friedeggs and in the new BC bloggers get the tools they need to control their own experience. I’ve only been at friedeggs for a couple of days. What we publish there is immediately pushed out to twitter (and to Facebook in the case of others as I don’t have a FB account). I’m loving it. :)

I am not really into social media for social media itself it’s a time killer while I’m writing for school or doing research. BC itself, well I imagine it’s time to do something else with it or it will go the way of the old blog explosion, or worse yet My Blog Log…loaded with large breasted icons selling ….real estate, vitamins or something

It has to be useful to people, the forum was useful only to a few people who seemed to not have jobs or anything to do all day…that is just an opinion. It was embarrassing for a lot of people to spend their days around fart jokes, especially those over 9 years of age so it turned off a lot of people toward the end of its reign. I am going to see what happens with it.

@Cooper
Hey it’s good to hear from you busy lady. I agree with your read on the situation. The forum is useful only to people who have the time to chat all day. I notice that the same people chatting on the forum are also in close contact on twitter too, and they are the most resistant to any change being made at BC. Many many members have been totally turned off by their forum experiences and have told me that being a BC member doesn’t appear to be benefiting their blogs in any way they can measure. In the final analysis, there would be no blog directories or social networks if there were no bloggers. TonyB and AngieA are facing the challenge of providing a useful platform for bloggers to promote their blogs on, so waiting to see what the restructuring amounts to sounds like a plan.
Cheers

I don’t miss BlogCatalog. Beyond the forums, which were full of link-droppers, make-money-onliners, religious whackos and trolls, there wasn’t much there.

Your description of Fried Eggs made me smile:
The 140 character restriction doesn’t exist … It provides the ability to post media (image uploads, video uploads) and provides the ability to follow and converse only with people you choose to…

@Ian
Yes, it’s a form of microblogging. And yes I do get where you are coming from. The advent of social media has meant that overall bloggers are doing less blogging as they are spending hours every day on social media sites & in social networks. There has been a dramatic drop in “blog based relationships” based on direct communication with readers as comments have also dropped. (Note what SBA said above.) In addition, twitter & Facebook are crawling with schemers, scammers and business spammers aka internet marketers pursuing the almighty buck.

I throttled way back on social networking in December. I’ve done a bit more this past month but I have not intention of increasing the time I spend on those sites.

Basically friedeggs is in BETA and it’s what you choose to make it. I’m not at friedeggs to “pimp my blog”. I’m there to connect & converse with a diverse group of people on a broad variety of topics that aren’t necessarily what I blog about. However, whatever I do post there is automatically pushed out to twitter and to Facebook for others (I don’t have a FB account). I’m encouraging you to join friedeggs and get into some good free form troll free conversations with other FE bloggers, some of whom you already know, and others you don’t know.

P.S. Also from what I understand from TonyB you will be able to pimp your blog more effectively under the restructured BC.

@Jay.me
I too have never been a huge twitter fan. I don’t like limitations & frankly twitter has been overun with spammers, scammers, and marketers. I’m a blog reader – not a consumer & I’m sick & tired of hearing make money bloggers who have a vested interest in cultivating ad clickers telling me that I have to provide value in 140 characters & form meaningful relationships based on sound bites. In short, twitter doesn’t fulfill my need for meaningful connections & conversations. It’s never brought my blog a noticeble increase in traffic. I have many followers that I need to prune as they don’t retweet my posts. I found you on friedeggs & became a follower. I’m looking forward to chatting with you there.

I tend to agree with Tiffany that the interpersonal and interactive element will suffer, and to me that was the most enriching and engaging part. But to paraphrase Shakespeare: “The old BC might’ve been a better place, but bloggers must be content.”

@nothingprofound
I can hear your sadness. Wherever people gather they connect, form friendships, interact and interconnect and grow to become a “social” community. Your existing BC contacts will remain intact. You are a very social and personable person I”m sure whatever opportunities there are to meet new bloggers in the new BC will be ones that you will pursue. :)

There is interpersonal and interactive element is already happening on FriedEggs. It’s very easy to use and I’m sure you will like it if you join and try it out.

I have to admit, I’m a little uneasy. I know we live in a changing world online (and love the freedom from space restrictions on Fried Eggs), but a lot about BlogCatalog seemed to work for me. I really liked the discussion forums and some of the groups, and am having a hard time getting my head around how the interactivity is going to happen in the 2010 version. I’m reserving judgment, but with my brow furrowed a bit.

@Tiffany
Thanks for taking the time to share your reaction to this sudden change.

I hear you. This came out of the blue and it’s hard to adapt to change when what has been was working for you. It’s harder still when whatever the new structure may be hasn’t been shared, let alone, fleshed out.

I believe you have one of the larger and most active writing groups at BC so hearing groups will be no more must chafe. With so little notice it will be hard to make contingency plans so the group continues to function somewhere somehow. Perhaps setting up free social networks on ning could provide a structure for the writer’s group and the other groups that are active too.

I haven’t a clue how interactivity will happen in the new BC and have been wondering about it too. Let’s hope there will be some attempt made to share what the new vision of BC is in more concrete terms very soon.

P.S. I also love the freedom from the 140 character restriction on FriedEggs. Your daughter’s video was great. Next week I will be posting some images and videos too.

Timethief, you are a wonder, even Tony says:
OneCoolSite has done an analysis of the future of BC’s “crack up” :) It’s worth the read because it’s written by an intuitive blogger, who always does her homework.
I know you two have bumped horses but it’s very generous of you to wish the cracked up BC a little gorilla glue. I had stopped using BC because it seemed to be dying, unresponsive, argumentative and often silly. I also wish them well. Not sure we need another ‘not like’ Twitter/social media or micro-blogging thing. Very few of those are driving traffic to the blog. Often the traffic just posts another social media blurb — everyone is forgetting the comment box.

@SBA
What you say about lack of traffic and comments is so true everywhere. There’s only 24 hours in a day and when the hours spent on social media sites aren’t converting into activity on the blog it’s time to invest time elsewhere.

You said:

I had stopped using BC because it seemed to be dying, unresponsive, argumentative and often silly.

I think many members who pulled back from BlogCatalog shared the same experience.

Perhaps a FriedEggs isn’t needed but I have spent a good portion of today trying it out and I like it – BIGTIME! I think TonyB is correct it can be a time saver. You can publish a post and it is automatically tweeted or shared on your Facebook profile.

I largely stopped using the BC forums some time ago, and barely visit at all, so, I guess, any changes make it more likely, if anything. And, actually, it sounds like an improvement on Twitter, which I really don’t use to discuss anything.

@YogaforCynics
I cannot connect and form a relationship with anyone in 140 character sound bites. No one can but every day hundreds of thousands are tweeting each other to say we must do so. My posts are automatically posted to twitter after publication. I spend very little time there and I will be spending even less time there in the future. I’ll be over at FriedEggs where I can have actual conversations, rather than blurting out sound bites.

@dreamsburnred
No matter how hard Staff and members tried to keep them out ad clicking fraudsters did invade BC. Under the new structure members will have control over who they connect and converse with.

I have known about some of the changes coming at BC for awhile. I have been having a terrible time over there with my thumbnail. It was blank for quite awhile. If you look you will find many profiles that have blank thumbnails too. I emailed and PM’d the admins over and over. Response was slow and I was finally able to get a thumbnail manually loaded. Then a few weeks ago I tried to get it updated and nothing happened. I emailed and PM’d again and was told I had a thumbnail and when I told them it was old and I tried to get it updated, I got no response. In the last few days, I have had contact with Tony and he advised me that they were updating their thumbnail process and that the new BC will be faster and better.

I haven’t been very active over at BC for some time now. Most of the forum discussions do not interest me and I don’t find useful info for my blog or for my personal interests. I have looked at FriedEggs and found no topics or categories dealing with my niche or crafting in general. I guess the jury is still out as what will become of BC or if the new BC will be a positive change for bloggers.

@RecycleCindy
I can hear the reservation in your tone. It’s my position that BC was very broken and needed replacement. However, I acknowledge that the “old timers” may not agree with me. I hope you do meet more crafters and form relationships with them and if I were you I wouldn’t write of FriedEggs. I think it is an intriguing and versatile platform that has a bright future. If you do join please be sure to look me up there. In the meanwhile have you ever visited the wordpress.com global tag pages to look for fellow craft bloggers? Click this link http://wordpress.com/tag/crafts/

@Doug C
I think it’s pretty clear that in order for bloggers to be able to benefit from BC membership complete restructuring is required. There must be a structure whereby spammers, sploggers, and ad clickers are cleaned right out of the database, along with the “dead blogs” that are still appearing in the directory. There must also be tools provided so bloggers can actually promote their blogs effectively. In other words, BC must become more than just a directory with a social forum if it is to survive as a business. Even though I’m not a member, I’m looking forward to see what changes will be made and how they either work or don’t work.

Thanks for sharing this. FriedEggs is not “reputed to be a Twitter killer.” It’s a platform designed to fill the gap between what Twitter offers, and does brilliantly well – self – selected conversations in micro post and what Blogs offer – the ability to write long posts, though of necessity, a full commitment to continuing to maintain your blog, if you want to maintain readers.

Like Twitter, your follower see the first 140 characters of your post. Unlike Twitter, you can expand your post to as long as you like. Your followers still see your 140 characters though, and aren’t overwhelmed by a long post. For people who do not use Twitter, because they feel it’s a waste of time writing micro-post, FriedEggs solves this problem. For people who want to write longer posts, though don’t want a blog. FriedEggs provides a way to quickly sign up and start sharing your news, views and opinions.

For Twitter users and bloggers, FriedEggs.com is designed to enhance both your Twitter experience, and your blog. As a FriedEggs user you can write a post and it is automatically tweeted or shared on your Facebook profile. This is an efficient use of your time. As you don’t have to manually go to FB and then Twitter. Use FriedEggs for both.

FriedEggs is inspired by the best of Twitter and Facebook though doesn’t replace either. It plays with them.

@TonyB
Thanks for the comment and the compliment on the title of my article. It’s cheeky but it’s not mean spirited as I don’t hold onto grudges and expect that you are too mature and too astute a businessman to hold onto them either.

I think it’s high time that BC was taken to the next level. IMO your restructuring attempt can actually bring it to life again by providing the means for bloggers to gain more benefit from their membership there. The most important benefit proposed is the ability to control who one connects with. All of the suggestions I brought forward in discussion threads last year were on that theme ie. the theme of bloggers having greater control over their accounts and their connections, and who they converse with.

As the new structure BC will be aimed at providing that control and as FriedEggs isn’t Twitter but instead is an enhanced miscroblogging platform where connections can be made and relationships can be built, then there is no need for a BC forum and paying staff to “moderate” conversations between members.

I like the FriedEggs concept and as membership is open to all bloggers I will be applying. Best wishes for success with both the launch of the new site and with FriedEggs too.

Fried Eggs is actually open to non BC members and could be really fun as it allows threaded comments (almost as fast as the BC forum). It’s still in it’s infancy. I don’t see it being a Twitter killer. I would love to see more of my BC friends on there. Tony is working on adding a lock feature preventing trolls from reading or participating in your threads.

Truth be told, I am totally addicted to Twitter and in the past two months, it’s become the social network of choice for me. I rarely return to the BC forums anymore except to comment occasionally on threads that my friends have started. I’m not really sad the forum is going away as it’s collapse was a direct result of poor community management.

I don’t think Tweetdeck is Tony and Angie. I just did a whois and Tweetdeck.com is registered to a British company with offices in London and New York. BC is registered to a proxy server as is Broowaha. FriedEggs is registered to Tony directly.

@stillthinking
I’m sorry about the delay between moderating your comment and applying to it. I have had problems with power coming and going and internet access coming and going since the big gale last weekend. It’s annoying and my ISP is sending me a new modem/router combination by snail mail. SIGH

Setting that aside the bottom line is that it’s not twitter where only 140 characters can be used and no media can be posted. It’s closer to being a microblogging platform than anything else and it does sound interesting so I may apply for membership.

Also thanks for the heads up on the TweetDeck word. I was tired and meant to type TweetFeed there so I have edited to correct that.

As far as losing the forum goes I don’t see that it will be a great loss to the majority of BlogCatalog members. The number of members that used it was very low and the interesting discussions ceased to happen months ago.

As far as the new BC structure goes I consider TonyB to be a very astute businessman and whatever replaces the former BC will IMO be aimed to deliver better service to the members and to close the door to the link dropping trolls, griever trolls and click fraud types.

Today, people draw information from other people in their communities just as they always have. What’s changed is that the fusion of sociology and internet technology has provided online “social” venues for community building. The Internet, Social Media and Social Networking have transformed one-to-one communication into one-to-many communication and the blogosphere has become home to an increasing number of internet marketers seeking connections.

Well I believe that TonyB is preparding to take BlogCatalog to the next level. He has a vision and he’s looking for support whatever that vision is. Best wishes to him.

Comments are closed.

Welcome to One Cool Site

Here you will find WordPress blogging tips, tools, tutorials for better blogging and building a better blog.